In psychology, there are the classic two personality type: introverts, who feel most comfortable alone and within themselves, extroverts, social butterflies that thrive in groups and around people, and then there are ambiverts, who fall somewhere in the spectrum between.

Then there is a category that seems all to itself: the anxiety-laden critical thinkers.

These are the people we see analyzing every small detail, coming up with issues that are probably non-existent, worrying too much and sweating the small stuff. You know, the friends and family members you love who can also drive you nuts.

Well, this will throw you for a loop: according to a recent study, deep-thinkers that worry too much are probably the most creative and genius people on Earth.

Essentially, those who are very creative tend to worry about perceived threats that actually don’t exist. In other words, the tendency among our world-changers is toward Anxiety Disorder.

According to Dr. Adam Perkins, expert in Neurobiology of Personality at King’s College in London,

“It occurred to me that if you happen to have a preponderance of negatively hued self-generated thoughts, due to high levels of spontaneous activity in the parts of the medial prefrontal cortex that govern conscious perception of threat and you also have a tendency to switch to panic sooner than average people.

Due to possessing especially high reactivity in the basolateral nuclei of the amygdala, that means you can experience intense negative emotions even when there’s no threat present.

This could mean that for specific neural reasons, high scorers on neuroticism have a highly active imagination, which acts as a built-in threat generator.”

This means that people who worry tend to address the issues that plague humanity.

If you are a happy-go-lucky type, you probably aren’t going to spot too many problems in the world. Things are smooth sailing for you, so why rock the boat?

Consider the stories of intellectual giants in history, for example: Charles Darwin or Issac Newton.

These men ushered in new paradigms with their critical thought, but also tended toward an isolated and brooding existence. Perhaps we could count Kurt Cobain and John Lennon among our list of creative geniuses.

‘Stay Away,’ ‘Genius is pain.’ It’s all spelled out there in the songs. Van Gogh was an insane impoverished person who drew self-portraits of himself after a self-inflicted ear amputation.

Who would venture to say that any of these people were not some of the most genius humans in recent history?

Creative outlets can help to control anxiety.

So, for all you critical thinking smarties out there, do what you do best. Engage in some art or do things that help find an outlet for your inherent creativity!